The Uncurious Americans

The Uncurious Americans

those rigid lines of parliament
evince admiration from visitors
the lines calm them while
the jangle of the market confounds them
the crowded produce stacked in burlap sacks
the smoke of roasted spices
mingling with garbage
packed into an open sewer

natives who lug dinner-stuffed totes
sing in counterpoint with vendors
to the tune of haggling a diurnal concert
from lives who are differ
instead visitors blink out this landscape
eager to view the next memorial to a dictator

Maybe they don’t see this humanity or
maybe they just want to buy their wine and
dance in time with the evening
then tell their friends about the monuments
and other moments of the itinerary
which involved doing what they usually do
at home on Saturday